Free At All Costs by Sam Moses Page B

full moon of January 23, 1941, bound for Virginia for drydock repairs. Radio Berlin said she was at the bottom of the harbor.
    The bombing of Malta by the Luftwaffe continued. The real siege had begun.

CHAPTER 10 •••
    SIEGE ON THE RAF
    F or the first six months of 1941, no freighters got through to Malta.
    The “Magic Carpet,” that trail of fast minelayers and minesweeping submarines from Alexandria, kept the island alive with foodstuffs and drums of fuel carried in their mine bays. A sub could carry eighty-eight tons of aviation fuel, enough to keep the RAF airborne for three days.
    The RAF on Malta had a new commanding officer: Air Marshal Hugh Pughe Lloyd, whom everyone simply called Hew Pew (with a great deal of respect). He toured the island on his first day on the job.
    “The trail of ruin was to be seen everywhere,” he said.
    The small size of the three aerodromes was sufficiently depressing a spectacle, but the air-raid shelters for the airmen were woefully inadequate, while underground operations rooms, in which there might be telephones, existed only in name.
    There was not one single petrol pump even such as could be seen in any British village. Our stock was kept in bulk storage of very limited capacity away from the aerodromes, but by far the greater proportion of it was distributed in five-gallon tins in small dumps spread over the island—most of them open to the sky.
    How the technical personnel maintained and operated the aircraft baffled my imagination. The humble spanner [wrench], hammer, and screwdriver were as scarce as hens’ teeth; and the motor transport, had it been in Britain, would have been used for roadblocks. The engines and the airframes had to be repaired and overhauled, and if parts were unserviceable they had to be made to work, as there were no spares. Similarly with the motor transport, the air-sea rescue launches and all the thousands of items of equipment. It was never-ending.
    That summer of 1941, the quality of life on Malta was affected by events elsewhere in the Mediterranean and beyond. Mussolini had invaded Greece the previous fall, but by winter the Italians were driven out; Germany invaded in April, and, taking some pressure off Malta, most of the Luftwaffe on Sicily moved to Greece in June. (The Royal Navy rescued 16,500 soldiers during the evacuation of Greece, but three cruisers, six destroyers, and 1,828 men were lost to Axis bombers.) Hitler also attacked Russia in June, stealing more planes from the Mediterranean. With Axis airpower down, the time was ripe for a convoy to Malta, from the west.
    A tough South African admiral, Neville Syfret, commanded Operation Substance, with six freighters carrying food, ammunition, troops, and thousands of tons of aviation fuel. Just before the convoy entered the Strait of Gibraltar, Syfret sent a note from one of his destroyers to the master of each merchant ship, via rocket line—a shotgun pistol that fired a canister on a rope for 250 yards, over the bow of each ship. Syfret wanted to make sure that none of his words were lost in the translation of semaphore signals.
    For over 12 months Malta has resisted all attacks of the enemy. The gallantry displayed by the garrison and people of Malta has aroused admiration throughout the world. To enable their defence to be continued, it is essential that your ships, with valuable cargoes, should arrive safely in Grand Harbour. The Royal Navy will escort and assist you in this great mission: you and your part can assist the Royal Navy by giving strict attention to the following points: Don’t make smoke. Don’t show any lights at night. Keep good station. Don’t straggle. If your ship is damaged, keep her going at the best possible speed. Provided every officer and man realizes it is up to him to do his duty to the very best of his ability, I feel sure that we shall succeed. Remember that the watchword is: THE CONVOY MUST GO THROUGH.
    Admiral Cunningham sent a decoy convoy from